Growth Is Good

You may or may not have noticed that in January, SBC Magazine expanded from 24 to 28 pages. That’s pretty darn exciting, because it is representative of our industry’s growth. Not contraction. Not survival. Positive growth. What a breath of fresh air.

This magazine’s growth is thanks directly to the commitment of our industry’s suppliers. Our Gold Advertisers stuck with us through thick and thin and put cold, hard cash on the table to ensure this publication survived during the lean years. My hat is off to them, and I would encourage all of you to thank the ones you do business with (see a list on our website).

In 2014, we are witnessing the return of past loyal advertisers who helped build SBC into the 128-page encyclopedia it was in its heyday. While it’s unlikely we will ever get back to printing so many pages, expanding to 28 means that a lot more valuable content can be communicated to you and the marketplace each month. I believe it’s vital we all reach out to our suppliers and encourage them to consider advertising in our magazine. It will increase their exposure (while publicly showing their support for our industry), it will improve their sales, and it will bolster this important tool for promoting our industry.

As we look to add more content to the magazine, it’s important to reflect on what we put in these pages and why we put it there. SBC’s mission is to increase the knowledge of and to promote the common interests of those engaged in manufacturing and distributing structural building components. Further, it strives to ensure growth, continuity and increased professionalism in our industry, and to be the information conduit by staying abreast of leading-edge issues.

If you want to know what’s going on in our industry, what the next trend is, or what is the latest thing threatening our market share, SBC is the place to go first to find out. It’s a powerful business tool that helps ensure we don’t operate in a vacuum, but have the ability to make informed decisions based on solid information. These pages help us remember our past, embrace our current success and, ultimately, explore our opportunities for the future.

Over the past few years, SBC Magazine branched out into electronic media with a new website (sbcmag.info) and a weekly email newsletter, SBC Industry News Top Headlines. SBC Industry News is intended to offer insight into general industry news and trends involving component manufacturers, suppliers and the economy. Based on its wide weekly readership, it evidently provides a good cross section of our industry a greater depth of industry knowledge, an enhanced ability to benchmark performance, an aid in strategic planning, and a spotlight for innovation. If a supplier or fellow manufacturer comes up with a new way of doing things that will make me more profitable, I want to know about it. SBC Industry News is a good tool to do just that. If you aren’t taking the time to look at the headlines when the email shows up in your inbox, you should seriously reconsider.

The interesting thing about SBC Industry News is that, unlike SBC Magazine, the content comes from a wide variety of news sources across the country. Sometimes the news on the web is favorable to our industry and the companies that make it up; sometimes it’s not so good. Sometimes the news articles out there are well written and factual; other times, an author’s bias is overly evident. Through it all, these headlines help inform each of us on what our marketplace is being told or what it may believe.

Speaking of being told, SBC Magazine and SBC Industry News are a great opportunity for component manufacturers and suppliers to highlight the innovative things they are doing. During this upcoming build season, if you find yourself doing something a bit differently, or you complete a project you’re particularly proud of, let SBC staff know so they can share it with the industry. If you read something in SBC Industry News and know more about the topic or the situation, let SBC staff know, or comment on the story online and help enlighten the whole industry.

I would be remiss without mentioning that SBC also supports an important endeavor for our industry, the annual SBC Legislative Conference in Washington, DC. As you read these pages, a group of us are storming Capitol Hill and talking with our members of Congress about public policy issues impacting our industry, from the lack of skilled labor to disastrous reforms proposed for the federal housing finance system. We will tell you how it all turned out in the next issue of SBC.

Growth is great (it sure beats the alternative). Help SBC continue to grow and add value to your business. Share with SBC staff your stories and perspectives, and encourage suppliers to support of our industry by helping this magazine continue to provide great content.